Aditya Birla Group to invest Rs 7,000 crore in Andhra Pradesh

VISAKHAPATNAM: Aditya Birla Group plans to invest Rs 7,000 crore in the next two years in Andhra Pradesh on expanding existing businesses, Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said today.

The conglomerate already has investments of Rs 10,000 crore in the state across sectors like telecom, retail and cement.

“Our experience in Andhra Pradesh was fruitful… Uptil now our investments are of the order of about Rs 10,000 crore. We have created employment for 11,000 people both direct and through ancillary industries,” Birla said at the Investment Summit here.

“As we go along, we expect to invest another Rs 7,000 crore in the next two years. This will be towards expansion of our existing businesses,” he added.

The company has set up a cement plant with capacity of 5.6 million tonnes. “We are acquiring a 5 million tonnes per annum plant at an investment of Rs 3,000 crore located near Amaravati city.”

In the telecom sector, Idea cellular currently serves 8 million customers through 69,000 outlets and nearly 9,400 cell sites.

“This year we will be extending 3,500 cell sites largely 3G and 4G at an investment of over Rs 1,300 crore,” Birla said.

In the branded apparel and retail business, the company has 240 stores and is looking at increasing the presence as also in the financial services sector.